A Perfect Marriage: Superintendent Blends Turf and Tech
Most of us are familiar with Thomas Edison’s definition of genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. Here’s another one you’ve probably heard a million times: Necessity is the mother of invention. Jason VanBuskirk, who founded one of the golf industry’s rare tech startups (and whose company was recently acquired by another), bridles at the genius label. “I’ve always thought of myself as the resident geek,” he says. But if we meld the two aphorisms above and salt that mixture with a serious case of viral encephalitis, we’ve outlined the factors that led one superintendent — whose work-life balance
GreenSight Granted FAA Waiver For Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS) Drone Operations
BOSTON, MA, January 19th, 2017 – GreenSight Agronomics, a drone services, and agricultural intelligence provider, has secured a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration to operate its drone system beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). BVLOS operations allow GreenSight to control its drone systems stationed anywhere in the world remotely from its Boston command center. While this waiver still requires a local visual observer, it is an important first step toward unattended operations.
GreenSight CEO James Peverill Advising The Golf Industry on Drones
GreenSight’s CEO James Peverill was recently interviewed by Boardroom Magazine to emphasize to the golf course management industry the importance of being compliant with FAA regulations and obtaining the correct insurance when operating drones on their property. The full article included below.
Monitoring Moisture At National Golf Links with Afternoon Flights
GreenSight thermal imaging allows superintendents to see relative evapotranspiration rates across their course. Morning flights are convenient, but afternoon flights clearly highlight moisture variations allowing better optimization of irrigation.
Greensight Featured in Pro Shop Magazine
Greenskeeping 25 years ago was an art. Now it’s fine art and a science. It required just as much work 25 years ago as it does now, despite the extensive use of power equipment and technology today. Although things have changed in the supervision of greenskeeping, there are more headaches. Turf specialists have had to be discovered and developed; super-fine grasses have to be produced to satisfy the demand of golfers who always want something better.
GreenSight and Victoria Golf Club in Golf Course Management Magazine
Six months later, Robertson and Victoria GC joined five other facilities to become a main pilot site for GreenSight’s first-generation drone system. Two months after he began “flying,” Robertson saw the potential to not only relieve his staff of daily soil probing, but also to provide a daily bird’s-eye view of the entire golf course. The drone’s near-infrared and red-edge cameras, which spotlight chlorophyll, highlight all the places on the course where turf health has been compromised.
Greensight Named Winner of Startup Arlington Competition
Boston-based GreenSight Agronomics is the winner of this year’s Startup Arlington competition, selected from 129 applicants hailing from 18 different states and six sites abroad. “GreenSight is exactly the type of technology company that can truly succeed here in Arlington,” said Christina Winn, Arlington Economic Development’s director of business investment. “GreenSight’s ability to easily connect with Federal agencies and other top research institutions, many of which are already working with the company, will really position the company to be able to grow and succeed quickly. It’s the ideal company to be selected as the Startup Arlington winner.”
GreenSight Launching Their Second Generation Turfgrass Drone Service
GreenSight’s drone systems, shipping in January, are offered as a annual lease and include the drone hardware, free hardware upgrades, support, and access to automated data processing and alerts to changing turfgrass conditions. The system was developed in conjunction with some of the most respected golf course superintendents in North America and refined in collaboration with agrochemical companies over their test plots in the U.S. and Europe. This second generation of the GreenSight drone includes a proprietary thermal camera enabling the company’s software to determine the transpiration rate of 9-holes of turfgrass each flight. The drone flies completely autonomously; the
GreenSight Part of Mass. Robotics Delegation Heading to China to Seek Investors
Representatives from 10 Massachusetts robotics companies will travel to China at the end of October to meet with potential investors and companies there in an effort to connect American innovation with Chinese capital and partnership opportunities. The trip, which is scheduled for Oct. 22-30, was organized by InTeahouse, a Chinese-style teahouse in Cambridge’s Central Square that helps to create bridges between technology innovators in the U.S. and potential investors and business partners in China.